I'm pulling my current journal over from our local Miata forum, so some of this are the older entries, starting from 3/14/10. I'll compile them into as few posts as possible. Pretty picture heavy though. Reading over this I've seen how much my goals for this car have changed. lol
You'll see me reference someone named Dave quite a bit, he's known as OldGrayFrog on the forums. For a majority of the time I've owned this car, I was building his '91 from the ground up. Almost everything on that car has been replaced with something newer or better: built 1.8, GT2871R turbo, Hydra, LSx coil packs, 3.636 rear end, 6-speed, Nakamae interior, Racing Beat body parts, Simpson hood, Garage Vary rear panel, Wilwood brakes, 6ULs, Exige seats, you get the idea. I'll try to copy over that build thread too at some point.
3/14/10
Main Entry: har·bin·ger
Pronunciation: \ˈhär-bən-jər\
a : precursor b : one that presages or foreshadows what is to come
So after thinking about what I want out of my next project Miata and knowing that it will be another NA platform, I decided that I wanted a more enjoyable daily driver than my '91 Toyota Previa (aka The Space Egg). That thing is great for hauling parts or people, but not so much fun to drive. I love Miatas and can fix or modify most anything on them now, so it only made sense to get another one. I can enjoy the reliability and even though I'll have a Project Miata, I won't miss the fun summer months of top down driving.
So here's my new daily driver, a 1999 Miata. Some will recognize this as OldGrayFrog's prior vehicle. It's in great shape, has 114k miles, handles great, and will work perfectly for what I want out of a daily. I really wasn't looking for an NB for a daily (it's well known I prefer an NA over an NB), but this one came along at the right time and is actually one of the few comfortable ones I've been in. I'm addicted to looking in the mirrors over the rear fenders and spoiler, same feeling as looking over the flares on my prior NA. Just something about the curves...
Current Mod List:
- Garage Vary Replica Front Bumper
- IL Motorsports Eyelids
- Track Dog Racing Front Splitter
- KG Works Side Markers
- MazdaSpeed Miata Rear Spoiler
- MazdaSpeed Miata Rear Diffuser
- IL Motorsports LED 3rd Brake Light
- Spoon Fuel Lid
- Bilstein PSS Coilover System
- Flyin' Miata Front and Rear Sway Bars and Adjustable End Links
- DBA Cross Drilled and Slotted Rotors
- EBC Green Stuff Brake Pads
- SS Brake Lines
- OBX Header, 2.5" Roadster Midpipe, and Cobalt Polished Stainless Steel Exhaust System
- Brainstorm Solo I Roll Bar
- Katskinz Covered NB Seats
- Innovate LC-1 WBo2
- Gauge cluster with NB2 white faces and KG Works Vintage Aviation Bezel
- VooDoo Smooth Piano Black Shift Knob
This weekend I:
- Installed 15x7.5 +34 6ULs wrapped with 205/50/15 Nitto Neo Gens
- Swapped the tail lights for 01+ assemblies
- Installed my Nautilus Air Horn
- Installed a black soft top (Thanks Joe and Sean!)
- Lowered the car (Thanks Mike and Sean!)
In the near future, I'd like to tint the windows, install a stainless steel braided clutch line, a Cobalt 3-point shock tower brace, frame rail reinforcements, and a MazdaSpeed Miata pedal set. Maybe an aftermarket steering wheel. Probably not much more than that though, just enough to assist in handling and durability.
I may have to pull the Brainstorm bar and install a more glass-window friendly rollbar. It didn't interfere with the tan cloth top with glass at all, but the vinyl top doesn't go down as easily.
So enough talking, onto the pictures.
Before shot:
And now:
With Doppelgänger:
Slapped on the SportMax 002s from my '95 on there just for sh**s and giggles, poor fitment:
Editor's Notes: Right after I got this car and proclaimed it my daily driver, I had visions of an LSx swap and an NB daily. I set out to find an NA with a blown engine that I could swap the 99's engine into, but it didn't pan out then.
3/21/10
Installed SMT LED tail light bulbs from V-LEDs
LED Bulb:
Running Lights (LED on left, OEM on right):
Brake Lights (LED on left, OEM on right):
The brake lights almost look the same until you notice that you can see the gridlines in the housing on the right light, and not so much on the left light. And they're really red, not orange. lol
Popped the SlickAuto APR CF Mirrors from my NA onto the NB:
4/4/10
Yesterday Sean (wonton) and I drove up to Panic Motorsports in SC to get the parts I needed to start my interior swap. Steve is a great guy to do business with and the drive was well worth it.
This is what we saw when we pulled up, so we knew we made it to the right place:
To the project at hand, the tan interior was nice, but I wasn't satisfied with it and I don't enjoy leather in a convertible. I'm also not a big fan of chrome and wood accents on the interior. I already had black floormats and center console, so it was looking a little mismatched. Here's the before pictures:
And after the swap. I have to modify the inside door pulls so that they fit into the holes in the MSM door panels and I'll have to create new linkages so it all works, but that won't be too hard to do once I get the parts. Here's the after:
If you look at the before pictures, you can see that there was a wood piece adhered to the OEM shifter surround. When I took that off there was hardened residue from the adhesive that wouldn't come off, even with a razor. So I sanded it smooth and wrapped it with the Neffy Wrap:
4/13/10
I realized I didn't have any pictures that really showed off the the mirrors against the rest of the car and I also got the windows tinted (38 on the sides and 18 on the rear). I installed my old Revlight and ScanGauge II last week too.
I unexpectedly received a set of larger brakes so those will be going on ASAP.
And yes, those are rock chips in the front bumper, the result of getting peppered with fine gravel during a mountain run combined with a not so hot paint job.
5/3/10
Snagged a set of NB Sport Brakes for an awesome deal.
Here's a few quick comparison shots of the brakes off the car, shots of the car will come when the weather improves:
Fronts:
Rears:
Rear Rotors:
The brakes are a little more touchy and stop the car better than the stock setup did, both using EBC Green Stuff pads, so a pretty fair comparison. A worthwhile swap if you can get the parts cheap enough, but the stock setup does work very well. The fronts will soon be replaced with a set of Wilwood Dynalite calipers and Corrodo 11" rotors. Lots of weight can be lost there and I'm preparing the car for a lot more power.
6/28/10
Well the stock radiator's plastic endtank started separating from the core (no big surprise there), so I put up a few WTB ads and patiently waited. I just scored a barely used PWR for less than a brand new Mishimoto aluminum rad! Should be here this week, hopefully I'll get some time to install it so I can make Caffeine and Octane this weekend, I've missed the last two.
It showed up and was installed on 7/1/10:
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